Last season's Mad Men gave us some of the messiest, most embarrassing and tragic — and humorous — moments of SC&P history. Smooth-talking Don Draper's knack for discretion backfired in the worst of all possible ways — in his daughter Sally's face.
The series' final season — or rather, the first seven episodes of its final season (the final seven airing in spring 2015) — premieres this Sunday on AMC. The farewell to the 1960s continues with a travel motif — one last flash of glamor for the show's adoring legion of aesthetes.
Rather than just delving into another round of predictions, CL asked Tampa Bay's Mad Men Round Table and other fans for a wish list of what they'd like to see happen before the series draws to a close.
Betty comes into her own
"The first wish that springs to mind is that Betty somehow finds a way to express herself creatively. I don't know why I sympathize with her so much, but I feel like she has one of the worst (most unhappy/unsettled) lives on the show." —Natalie Campisi Tarpley, writer & Mad Men Round Table founder
Don leaves the biz
"I wish we get to see Don kick the ad bucket for good and move on to something meaningful, even if it's drowning in gin over a half-finished (good) novel." —NCT
"At the end of last season, when Don showed the kids the home he grew up in, it made me so hopeful that he would ditch his Draper identity, recover from the sauce, and till the land. That's the Texan in me speaking." —Soraya Zaumeyer, copywriter
"Don leaves Megan, grows a beard, walks away from the rat race and joins a commune upstate. Keeping in mind this is what we'd like to see, not necessarily what we think will happen." —Ann-Eliza Musoke, attorney
Peggy and Pete deal with their illegitimate kid
In the earliest days of the series, when Peggy was a bright-eyed secretary, she got knocked up by Pete, an entitled and arrogant ad exec who's almost universally hated (I will admit he's endeared himself to me with some of his more sincere moments between moments of utter repulsion). Peggy hid the pregnancy from everyone but Don and dumped off the kid with her mom and sister. While many fans might be thinking good riddance, I've always wondered if some bonding time with their mystery child could offer a karmic cleansing and a chance for growth and closure to Olson and Campbell. I'm not necessarily pining for all three to drive off into the sunset in a station wagon, but I would like to see something materialize from this discarded plotline. —Julie Garisto, CL A&E Editor, and Nikki Rice, Tampa hairstylist
The return of Sal
This was a popular wish, from four members of the Mad Men Round Circle. Many fans have blogged about how they miss Salvatore "Sal" Romano, an Italian American from Baltimore and closeted homosexual who worked for Sterling Cooper in the early part of the series. Things came to a head for Sal on a business trip, when Don Draper caught him with a male bellhop. Says Jonathan Wilson, "If this is happening in '69, I think there will be a Sal appearance with a tie-in to the Stonewall riots, kind of like they did with both the MLK and JFK assassinations." Says Hayley Grant: "I'm still on the Sal train. Even if it's just to know he's alive." —JG, Jonathan Wilson and Hayley Grant
Peggy strikes out on her own
Obviously as a copywriter I want to see Pegs become a creative director and open her own shop. —SZ
Buh-bye, Megan
"I would like to see a house fall on Megan. Gorgeous woman. Decent actress. But she is THE most boring character on the show and they spend way too much time on her storyline. However, I see from this picture that that will not be happening. I also want to see Peggy rule the world and for Don to find some semblance of peace. If Sally Draper were slightly older she would most likely be a prime recruit for the Manson family." —Lisa Spencer (via Facebook)
Joan finds love, Sally is narrator
"I'd like to see Joan find real love and Don settle his dual personalities. Sally revealed as the "narrator"... in therapy, perhaps, as the last shot of the season. Also, a backdrop story through scenery on the effects of the slow decay of NYC into the '70s." —NR
Jim Cutler and Roger Sterling share a swingin' bachelor pad (and spinoff)
The bromance should continue to blossom between these two suave and shifty bastards — even if they're stabbing each other in the back the entire time. Though they each crave control of the agency, Jim and Roger are two hedonistic peas in a pod. I love their bon mots and sheer wackiness, their randomness and LSD-tripping escapades. I see them in bachelor party scenes replete with surprise, celebrity guests popping up in Sock-it-to-Me-Baby fashion. Heck, if I had my way, Weiner would spin the duo off into their own '70s-style sitcom with soundstage, canned laughter and matching polyester jumpsuits. —JG
That brown-noser Bob Benson
"Pete throws Bob Benson from a train!" —Amanda Brown, PreservationTampa
Kinsey in Technicolor
"Kinsey pitches and lands a pilot for some '70s sitcom, like Brady Bunch or Gilligan's Island." —JW
New eye candy
"It would be interesting to see American cinema at that time through the show's celeb vehicle Megan, perhaps a run-in with American Zoetrope founders or some of the French new wave set. Also, out of a selfish interest, I'd love to see Weiner's take on ’60s Morocco or Cuba." —NCT
The tune to play over the final episode's credits
"My prediction is that Don McLean's 'Castles in the Air' will be the last song playing as we fade out for the last time." —Ann-Eliza Musoke
